Board Effectiveness

Many boards today grapple with how they may best engage with the organisation in a way that adds value and is sustainable

Barrington is adept at uncovering the issues that underpin the performance of boards across corporate, government and not-for-profit sectors. We use a highly engaged process to identify the drivers of performance and gain agreement on the areas where the board can add most value.

Barrington assists clients to:

Develop a shared understanding of the roles of board and executive

Improve the relationship between board and executive

Clarify the expectations for board members and subsequently identify professional development opportunities

Optimise performance monitoring and reporting frameworks

Address board succession

Design the board’s engagement with strategy, including the identification of the key strategic issues the board wants to engage with

Develop strategy, both as a discrete exercise and also as part of an ongoing program

Assist small firms to make the transition to larger organisations with more sophisticated forms of governance (including independent directors, formal policies and appropriate processes for risk, strategy and performance oversight)

In addition to advice on specific governance issues, Barrington offer a range of board review services and individual director evaluations. Importantly, all our review services are forward-looking exercises. They engage directors in the process of identifying issues and opportunities for improvement, and produce actionable recommendations to lift the performance of your board.

Barrington also develop policy governance frameworks for organisations. Based on the work of John Carver, policy governance emphasises role clarity and guidance through prescriptive policy. This particular form of governance has been successfully implemented for many Western Australian clients.

Detractors are lining up to criticise our universities. The Australian Industry Group last week warned that the tertiary sector was not keeping up with the needs of business and was producing graduates who were almost unemployable because they lacked skills.